Wanderer's Escape (9 page)

He was right.  Immediately he was swamped with information, though the ship quickly slowed the flow to let him catch up.  Some of it was general information on adding restrictions or confirmations to systems.  Most felt different though, less dry than the information he'd had before, though there were several distinct feels to it.  The ship sensed his interest and told him the reason.  These were protocols that previous Captains had put in place.  The feel came from each Captain's personality.

That fascinated Jess.  It was the first mention of any previous captain.  Reluctantly he pushed it aside, focusing instead on setting up the restrictions he felt were needed.  For the critical systems, including the airlock, life support and weapons, he added the requirement to consciously confirm any action.

Wading through the information he had been fed Jess found many other useful ideas, though most he decided to return to later.  One he would never have thought of was to ensure commands issued while he was asleep were ignored.  That suggestion had a wry feeling to it, obviously the result of an interesting experience.  Jess implemented the control immediately.

Finally he pulled back from the ship's mind again, feeling both relieved and concerned.  Relieved that he now had controls in place to prevent the ship doing anything drastic if he had a stray thought.  Concerned as the depth of his and the ship's interdependence hit home once again.  The fact it would be monitoring, and potentially reacting to, his dreams hit particularly hard.  It felt like having someone continuously peering over his shoulder.

Thinking of Sal sleeping in his room, Ali in Matt's and the children in Sal's Jess felt things were getting more than a little crowded, and that was before Matt was well enough to leave the sick bay. 

He wasn't happy with the main living area either.  Having the captives in the corner, even safely contained, meant his skin crawled each time he had to pass through.

Reaching out to the ship he sent a query about changing the layout.  Forming requests for information was becoming easier, feeling more natural, as was interpreting the information he received.  The answer seemed to be that within most areas of the ship the structure could be formed into whatever arrangement he wanted.  The main exceptions were the flight deck and the engines.  The flight deck could have superficial changes but the main layout needed to stay.  The engine room could be changed but the restrictions were great and he didn't fully understand the implications and interactions. 

For the rest of the ship light and air would be supplied to every room he created without his needing to specifically plan them in.  Water too, where needed.

He dealt with the prisoners first – erecting walls surrounding the shields holding them in.  He added a small toilet and sink in a tiny sub-room, and a small slot in the main wall to allow food to be passed in.  There were no doors which solved two problems in one go – firstly shutting the prisoners off from the main living area, secondly greatly increasing security by creating a physical barrier they couldn't pass.

With that problem sorted out he turned to the issue of living space and bedrooms.  He expected to have to cut down on the living area to make more rooms but was surprised to see the space he had to work with was much larger than he'd expected.  Larger than the size of the ship he was sure. 

He pulsed a query to the ship and received confirmation that the space could be made available, along with a sense of the ship stretching to provide the space.  Other suggestions came back with the image.  Changing the overall size of the ship whilst keeping its general shape.  Creating additional shield generators and weapon mounts.  Increasing the number of manoeuvring thrusters to maintain performance.  Growing the engine room and increasing the number of engines to increase the power available.

He queried the ship to find out how such changes were possible.  The answer showed the ship harvesting materials from the destroyed corvette.  Storing them ready for use.

Initially Jess was tempted to perform a major overhaul, but then he considered how the others would feel to find the ship changing itself around them.  He settled on adding an additional floor accessed from the living area by a small spiral staircase.  He created four bedrooms, larger than the existing ones, each with a small shower area, toilet and basin.  Two on each side of the corridor.  He decided Ali's should be next to his, but thinking of her sent his emotions into turmoil.  He realised having her so close could be a major temptation, it would be too easy to create a door between their rooms if he wanted.  He changed the design to have Matt's room next to his, Sal's opposite and Ali's safely diagonally across the hallway.

In Sal's room he added a cot for the baby and a small bed for the boy, both in a semi partitioned section.  Sal had taken a shine to the children and he was sure she'd want to keep them with her until they could be returned to their family.

He then turned his attention to the ship itself.  It would need to grow a little to allow for the new rooms, he increased the size a little more to provide some space for future expansion.  Then he focused on the shields, weapons and engines.  With the ship's help he added enough shield generators to double the level of protection, and ramped up the ship's speed and agility by roughly thirty percent.

He really went to town on the weapons.  Some of the existing lasers were bulked up, their power increased and their cycle time between shots reduced while also improving their heat diffusion.  The ship provided him with several other weapon patterns.  He added a plasma weapon to each side.  Much slower to reach a target than the lasers but devastating at close range. 

Two missile launchers were mounted either side of the ship, between them loaded out with a dozen fast attack missiles and six heavy torpedoes that carried a much larger warhead at the expense of speed and agility.

Ion cannons provided the option of disabling rather than destroying an opponent.  Something Jess was more than happy to add.  He'd fight if he had to, kill if forced to, but he wanted to avoid it where possible.  Now the heat of the moment was long past, and the problems with their prisoners resolved, he regretted destroying the Corvette, even though he knew it was their only choice.  The Captain and Officers on the ship might have deserved to die for attacking the Wanderer, but what of the others?  In particular the prisoners, slaves like he had been, who were certain to have been on such a large ship.

Confirming the changes he sat back and watched through the ship's sensors as they began to unfold.  He spent the next hour following the transformation, fascinated by it.  The internal changes to the prisoner's area only took a few minutes.  The rest of the internal changes – and those to the weaponry, shields and engines – had to wait for the ship to grow.  He'd wondered if they would need to drop out of jump space while it happened but the ship told him no, that in fact the changes were easier to make in jump space.

Ali was the first to wake.  The Wanderer informed Jess when she tried to exit Sal's room.  He quickly approved the request, then headed back to the living area to meet her.  The new bedrooms were almost completed, he was looking forward to showing them off.

He entered the lounge as she emerged from the original sleeping area's corridor.  The look on her face when she saw him stopped him dead.  She looked furious and crossed to where he stood immediately, shaking a finger in his face.

“You don't trust me!” she shouted.  “The room was locked.  Don't think I didn't notice just because you unlocked it quickly.  Do you really still think I might be with
them
?”

She gestured towards the prisoner's area, seeming to notice the changes for the first time.  She paused for a moment then turned to renew her attack, shouting into his face from close range.  Jess realised with a start that she had tears in her eyes.

“Really?  You still think I might be like them?  Do you think that badly of me?  Do you have any idea how much that hurts?  Do you?”

Her tears were starting to flow now, she brushed them away with her hand angrily.  Staring at Jess from only inches away.  Despite her anger she looked beautiful to him.  He opened his mouth, tried to answer.

“I'm sorry.  It's not that... it's... well, Sal set it in place and she felt it was best for now.  I didn't want to argue...”

“
Pathetic!” She cut him off.  “Not even taking responsibility for your own actions.”

She started to turn away.

“But I can't trust
my
judgement.  I can't think clearly when you're near.” 

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.  Ali turned back, shock on her face.  Staring into his eyes.  He felt his cheeks burning but couldn't tear his eyes away from hers.  After a few seconds she grabbed his head and dragged him down into a passionate kiss.  Jess froze for a moment, completely caught off balance, before doing his best to return the kiss.  There hadn't been any girls near his age in his cell for several years.  He'd never kissed like this before he met Ali.  He had very vague memories of kissing her while they were both under the influence of the drugs but this was completely different.  He felt a near electric thrill coursing through his body, was acutely aware of Ali's hands in his hair, her body pressed against him.  Her scent filling his senses.

He felt so overwhelmed that he reached out for the ship, guiltily.  Asked it to check if he was being drugged again.  The ship's reply was almost instant – no external substances had been detected, however his own body was releasing a cocktail of chemicals all within normal bounds for a heightened state of arousal.

Reassured he relaxed into the kiss.  Felt he was starting to get the hang of it when Ali suddenly pulled back from him, fear in her eyes.

“You didn't... you haven't... have you drugged me?  Done what
they
did to me?”

Jess stood stunned for a moment, then shook his head fiercely.

“No!  Never!  That's a horrible idea.  They did that to me too.  I'd never do it to you!”

Her eyes narrowed. 
“There's something else.  What aren't you telling me?”

“
Well... I worried the same thing.  I got the ship to check you hadn't drugged me.  When you kissed me it felt so wonderful, so overwhelming, I was worried.”

She was still stood so close he didn't even see the slap coming, her hand seemed to materialise against his cheek.  She'd put everything into it and his head rang from the blow.

“That's for thinking I would ever do that to you!” she shouted in his face.  Then she grabbed his head again and kissed him fiercely, but briefly.

“
And that is for telling me how good the kiss felt.”

With a mischievous smile she whirled and walked back into the corridor towards Sal's room.  Jess was left standing staring after her.  His cheek stinging, his lips tingling, pulse pounding and breathing rapid.  His mouth hung open and his head whirled.  Shaking his head he decided he needed advice.  Why had it been fine for her to worry about being drugged, but so wrong for him to do the same?  Somehow he couldn't imagine asking Sal about what had just happened so he decided to see Matt again.  The ship indicated Matt was stirring anyway.

Matt scowled as Jess entered.  He was propped up by the bed to a half sitting position.  Jess's confusion over Ali had completely driven the circumstances of his earlier conversation with Matt from his mind.  Now the look on Matt's face made his stomach lurch.

“Come to talk to me again have you?” Matt grumbled.  “At least till I say something you don't like.  Then you'll shoot me full of sedatives again I suppose.”

“
It wasn't like that.  You were so worked up the ship thought you were in danger.  It said you had to be sedated to avoid doing yourself serious damage.  I decided it was right and told it to go ahead.  I was really worried about you.  And I hated doing it.  I felt really guilty.”

Matt stared at him for a long time, then sighed.

“OK Kid.  At least you admitted it, you could have claimed the ship acted on its own.  And I can see how it might have been necessary, though I'm still not happy about it.  More importantly, my point still stands.  We aren't safe while those bastards are still on the ship.”

Jess pulsed a command to the ship, causing a screen to appear on the wall showing the captives new holding area complete with shields and wall.

“I've taken some steps on that.  Created this room around them.  They can't get out – there's no door and the slot for food is much too small.  Changing the ship's design is something only I can do – or the ship itself when a pilot first starts to bond.  There's no way they can get out.”

Matt studied the images for a while before turning to Jess.

“OK,” he said grudgingly.  “It's a lot better than before.  I still don't trust them though and if there's a way to cause us problems they will.”  His lips quirked into a smile.  “So if something happens to you they'll be stuck in there forever?  Better make sure it doesn't, I can't guarantee to remember things like feeding them.”

Jess frowned.  Something else he hadn't considered.  Then he shrugged his shoulders.

“If it happens it happens.  I've got too much to worry about as it is.”

“
I take it one of those worries is what to do with our prisoners?  You realise that you effectively have two choices.  Let them go or kill them.”